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Comment by noja | Hacker News Reader

> Sweden tried this with catastrophic end results.

Tried what? They shut care homes as an afterthought, not as part of a plan to protect people (closing care homes came later).

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Sweden initially tried to achieve herd immunity. It failed because it is impossible to stop the virus from spreading to the vulnerable population.

This is incorrect, please refer to the press conferences held by FHM between march and june. I think every other one had a question about herd immunity (mostly from international media) and that herd immunity was not the strategy that sweden focused on.

What goal was Sweden pursuing by taking no real action in the beginning of the pandemic? The reasons might be unclear, but the lack of action has been properly documented.

I think this is actually incorrect. Again, there is so much misinformation about this that I don't blame anyone. I think there was quite a lot of things being done.

I believe the goal was to keep people informed about the dangers of the virus and how to protect themselves, the most important parts being to wash your hands and social distance. I think they also provide information tailored to different sectors (like healthcare) and advise them on how to fight the virus. It's then up to the different sectors how they handle their specific situation.

I think that Sweden is perceived to not take action when it did. I think this comes from the politicians stepping aside and "transferring the leadership" to FHM (doing the opposite would be political suicide in Sweden). In some other countries you have had politicians boasting how good their response is. I've even seen politicians claim that people of their race just handle the disease better. FHM doesn't have the same vested interest in looking good.

Another reason why herd immunity won't work is because natural Covid-19 immunity seems to have a pretty short duration based on my own experience.

Source: Had Covid in March 2020, then again in December 2020. Only the second time was confirmed by PCR test (tests were not readily available back in March), but the symptoms are exactly the same so I'm convinced I've had it twice now. Immunity doesn't last 9 months!

Covid shares a lot of symptoms with other diseases. It is impossible to reliably say you already had Covid back in March, it could be a lot different things.

Yes, I cannot prove anything with certainty. But the symptoms are very distinctive to me (quite different from a 'flu, for example), and like I said, I experienced virtually identical symptoms and progression both times. So, personally, I'm highly convinced I've had Covid twice.

Wow. You’re sharing you personal anecdote based on symptoms (not a confirm diagnosis) and claiming we should be changing our global approach to Covid?

Don’t do that please.

Wait, what? I never said anything about "changing our global approach to Covid". And just to be clear, I have a PCR-confirmed diagnosis.

You have zero evidence you got Covid-19 again, other than your strong belief.

Despite no other documented case of reinfection being published (beyond a positive PCR, which prove DNA, not infection).

Kind of a reckless statement.

> "Despite no other documented case of reinfection being published"

Here's one for your reference. This pretty much matches my experience/timeframe, except my symptoms were similar both times (not worse the second time), and I don't have any known comorbidities:

Confirmed Reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 Variant VOC-202012/01

https://twitter.com/andrew_croxford/status/13481695186030018...

You have a single PCR confirmed diagnosis. For your anecdote to be useful, you need two.

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